Author Topic: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel  (Read 573508 times)

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #150 on: November 13, 2017, 09:05:23 PM »
Chris, that pic was in a story by local TV chan. 5 about divers discovering stuff in the bottom of a local lake. Apparently it was dug out or something and they used a steam shovel. I don't know if the pic is of 'the' shovel or is just a stock image.

The pic is one of many in a photo essay and I can't extract a link. Here's the main page:

http://www.king5.com/

It's about half way down in an area called "Trending Videos".

Not much, just a neat pic.

Pete
Craftsman, Tinkerer, Curious Person.
Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #151 on: November 13, 2017, 09:47:14 PM »
Chris, that pic was in a story by local TV chan. 5 about divers discovering stuff in the bottom of a local lake. Apparently it was dug out or something and they used a steam shovel. I don't know if the pic is of 'the' shovel or is just a stock image.

The pic is one of many in a photo essay and I can't extract a link. Here's the main page:

http://www.king5.com/

It's about half way down in an area called "Trending Videos".

Not much, just a neat pic.

Pete
That one is going to need a big bucket of soapy water and some serious elbow grease!

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #152 on: November 15, 2017, 12:28:29 PM »
FINALLY! Today is the day I get access to the Marion 91 shovel outside the quarry!


Cameras charged,check
Tape measure, check
Pad/pen, check
Led light panels, check
Ready!!

Offline Stuart

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #153 on: November 15, 2017, 12:46:43 PM »
Chris

You forgot the most important item

Yourself  :stir:


Have a good information gathering exercise

Stuart
My aim is for a accurate part with a good finish

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #154 on: November 15, 2017, 01:05:37 PM »
Chris

You forgot the most important item

Yourself  :stir:


Have a good information gathering exercise

Stuart
Rats! Always forgetting something!   :Lol:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #155 on: November 15, 2017, 11:28:13 PM »
Finally got my chance at close-up inspection of the Marion 91 shovel today, was there alongside a pair of National Parks Service guys from the SteamTown facility in Pennsylvania, who were there to advise the historical society on the best steps to take to stabilize what is there and how to get it dressed up again and preserved for another generation. Turns out the society is already taking some great steps, they have the brush cleared away, a new parking area and viewing area off the side of the road with a nice wrought iron fence, and are getting signage explaining the machine and what it did made up.
The NPS guys were very helpful on steps to take, what materials to use, and it turns out the metal on it is in better shape than we thought, the roof, sides, machinery, and framework is in great shape with just surface rust, while the floors (sheet steel or iron of some sort) are pretty bad, lots of holes right through, but that is easy to patch over. The quarry had sprayed most of it with some sort of tar, bitumin, something like that, when they parked it 50+ years ago, most of which is wearing off now, but it preserved it for a very long time.
Sounds like they are getting some momentum behind dressing it up some more, and getting more publicity behind it to raise funds. I will be donating a copy of the blueprints for the machine once they are done, and have offered the use of the model any time they want it for displays, publicity, whatever.

So, I spent the afternoon crawing around inside, under, outside the machine (did not go up on the roof or up the boom, not agile enough for that anymore), with the tape measure in one hand and the camera in the other, documenting the snot of everything I could see and reach with the tape measure (found its quicker to snap a pic of the measure and what it is hooked to than to write it all down, that comes later). The tracks were very interesting, with the end wheels shaped more like hollow donuts, and I traced all of the piping and control levers, which run both along the inside of the cieling and also under the floor. Most of the main dimensions for things are close to what I had estimated from the photos I had gotten before, but there are doubtless a number of things on the 3D model to be tweaked. One thing I am sure needs to change are the sizes and teeth count on the lower gears, those I had to guess at before. Really glad for a good digital SLR with a long zoom lens, wound up taking ONLY 884 pictures today...!

Boy, gonna sleep good tonight!

 :cheers:

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #156 on: November 15, 2017, 11:51:04 PM »
Uploaded the pictures from the camera to the PC, spotted a couple that give you the flavor of things there...

Shot down INSIDE the bucket, I was not aware that the holders for the teeth at the front edge went all the way down the inside.


Tons of shots like this, detailing dimensions on the tracks, etc.

Shot up between the floor frames of the control linkages, including a few birds nests...

More linkages, and also showing the conditions of the floor plates, which look like an old car that was left out behind the barn. Fortunately the beams and machinery are all solid, just the leftover tar on them.

Lots of measurements were taken inside - here is an overall view of the main hoist and slew engines and gear trains - and you thought YOUR model was crowded, this one is 15 pounds in a 5 pound bag - to walk down the sides, you need to lean on the tops of the guards over the gears! The chain drum in this shot is for the chain that goes around the turntable at the front, swinging the main boom from side to side. The ends of the chain are at the front of the main boom, this drum takes the middle of the chain in/out on the top/bottom.

« Last Edit: June 06, 2018, 07:05:47 PM by crueby »

Offline Flyboy Jim

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #157 on: November 16, 2017, 03:19:47 AM »
Thanks for the preview Chris. Sounds like a nice productive day.  :ThumbsUp: So nice to hear that the "powers that be" are interested in preserving this steam shovel.

Jim
Sherline 4400 Lathe
Sherline 5400 Mill
"You can do small things on big machines, but you can do small things on small machines".

Offline Alan Haisley

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #158 on: November 16, 2017, 04:46:33 PM »

Chris,
In picture 2, is that bolt something like a tread tensioner?


Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #159 on: November 16, 2017, 05:00:56 PM »

Chris,
In picture 2, is that bolt something like a tread tensioner?
Yes - the rear axle on the tracks are fixed, the front ones are held in that square block with the bolt to push them forwards and tension the tracks. The pin above the 15" mark on the tape goes through a thick-walled  eye in the back end of the tensioning bolt.
The tracks have some interesting shapes, going to be fun to sketch all them out!

This morning I strted going through the photos, double-checking the measurements on things I had already modelled up. Most are good, I did find that the front and rear axles were a few inches out, have been correcting those positions. Also, I now have better tooth counts and diameters for the travel gears, need to change a couple, and also now know what the castings look like for the bearing blocks for the front travel gears (turns out they made one large block for two of the axles, I had modeled them as seperate ones). Still need to check a few dimensions on the engines. Once all the updates are done, I will start in on drawing up the track assemblies. It was a VERY worthwhile expedition, so glad I got the opportunity to get in and spend the day on it!

Offline steamboatmodel

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #160 on: November 16, 2017, 10:29:08 PM »
Hi Chris,
Years back I had to take some evidence photos, we had some devices that were 1', 2' & 3' long. They were about 2" wide made of metal and marked with yellow stripes 1" wide. The one of the appropriate length was placed next to the item being shot along with a photo gray scale or colour card if shooting in colour. It apparently made scaling the  items easier then a tape measure which we also used taking written or tape recorded dimensions.
Regards,
Gerald.
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors--and miss. Lazarus Long

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #161 on: November 16, 2017, 11:32:55 PM »
Hi Chris,
Years back I had to take some evidence photos, we had some devices that were 1', 2' & 3' long. They were about 2" wide made of metal and marked with yellow stripes 1" wide. The one of the appropriate length was placed next to the item being shot along with a photo gray scale or colour card if shooting in colour. It apparently made scaling the  items easier then a tape measure which we also used taking written or tape recorded dimensions.
Regards,
Gerald.
some of the earlier photo sets I worked from on the shovel (taken by someone else about 10 years ago) did the same sort of thing - they put a surveyors stick in a lot of the photos (not enough!), which had a alternating pattern of yellow/red every foot, a diamond at every 6", and the last foot was broken down in inches. It made scaling easier, for sure, on shots take from a distance away of a large part.

The way I did these (and the ones last spring on the Lombard), was to hook the tape measure on the end of what I was measuring, take a shot of that, then take a closeup of the tape where it crossed the end of the part - that way I can get down to fraction of inch easily. It worked out much quicker than taking measurements and writing it all down, plus I am catching a lot of stuff on other parts in the background.

So far its working out very well - today I have been going through and updating dimensions and shapes to match the actual measurements I took yesterday for the ones where I had to guestimate from the older pictures. The axles moved a few inches, things like that, but the biggest change has been finding out the two front travel gear shafts were on one common casting block with a quite complex shape - just finishing up redrawing all those parts now.

Next up I think will be the track assemblies, now that I have lots of detailed photos and measurements, before the best I had were pics taken from 20 feet away, nowhere good enough! Or, maybe I'll redo the teeth on the front edge of the bucket, now that I have pictures of the inside - the teeth go all the way down the inside face, which I was not aware of before.

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #162 on: November 17, 2017, 12:30:17 AM »
Got a lot done today, revising some of the details of sizes and positions of axles, gears, some beams to match the measurements I took yesterday on the real machine. Added the round-cornered holes in the cross beams to match the real thing. The one part that needed a major rework was the travel gear support section, which is below the floor towards the front of the machine, since I found out that the two final axles are supported by one large casting block. Here is a screen capture showing that new block, with the new positions of those gears closer to the centerline. Amazing how much a few measurements can fix a lot of guesswork!


« Last Edit: June 06, 2018, 07:06:20 PM by crueby »

Offline crueby

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #163 on: November 17, 2017, 02:08:29 PM »
Okay, all you boiler experts out there: on the boiler backhead in the Marion there are a number of these gizmos:

They appear to be a removeable, or at least loosenable, plug into the water jacket around the firebox area. There were a number of them, some down at floor level, others up higher.

Anyone know what they were used for? Inspection? Cleanout? Putting in a potato to boil??
« Last Edit: June 06, 2018, 07:06:31 PM by crueby »

Offline 10KPete

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Re: Chris's Marion 91 Steam Shovel
« Reply #164 on: November 17, 2017, 04:18:46 PM »
They're clean-outs, Chris. There should be quite a few...

Pete
Craftsman, Tinkerer, Curious Person.
Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

 

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